Automobile tag



June. 16, 1925.

H. E. HAGAN AUTOMOBILE TAG Filed April 6, 1925 Fig I INVENTOR,

, HOWARD E.HAGAN, Y

ATTORNEY.

Patented June 16, 1925. I

UNITED STATES v seassi PATEN ECE' HOWARD n. rmeen, or civi -lira, NEBRASKA.

AUTOMOBILE TAG.

Application filed April 6, 1925. Serial No. 20,956.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HowAno E. HAGAN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Omaha, county of Douglas, and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automobile Tags, and have described the same in the following. specification, illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

My improvements relate to that class of tags which are commonly applied to automobiles in garages, repair shops, parks and other places, for the purpose ofidentifying these vehicles individually, or of indicating the work done or to be done thereon, or the ownership thereof, or other particulars which may be marked on the tags respectively or signified thereby. It is the main object of my invention to produce a selfclinging tag of this class, which is attachable to automobile hoods of the usual type,

as well as detachable therefrom, by mere manipulation of the tag; to do this without the aid of wiring,or other supplementary contrivances, as well as without opening or lifting the hoods; and atthe same time to facilitate and quicken the application and the removal of the tag and cheapen its manufacture and use. To accomplish these objects I form my improved tag from an approximately plane sheet of cardboard or similarly flexible and resilient material by slitting one end of the sheet into three forwardly extending arms, one of which errtends forward between the other two and has a terminal finger extending backward. In said drawings, illustrating the best manner in which I have contemplated applying the principles of the invention, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a tag which is made in accordance with these principles. 2 is a side elevation of a part of an automobile having the same tag operatively attached to the hood. Fig. 3 is an enlarged portion of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is the reverse side of Fig. 3. Figures 5 and 6 are inside views of a portion of the same automobile hood.

The illustrated specimen of my invention is an oblong piece of cardboard having two slits or gashes in its front end. One of these, the slit 7, is a straight gash in the lower part of the tag, and extends from the front edge thereof directly inward, or backward, from that edge. The-other slit, denoted by the numerals 8 and 9, is an angular gash cut continuously in the upper part of the tag. Its initial portion 8 extends a distance obliquely backward from the front edge of the tag, and its terminal portion 9 extends a less distance obliquely forward from the initial portion-toward that edge. By these slits the front end of the tagy as seen 1n Fig. 1, is divided into three parts, or arms, namely: the marginal arms 10 and 11, which are located at the top and the bottom of the tag respectively, and the intermediate arm 12, which has the terminal finger 13 pointing backward. The louver work of the hood 14: to which the tag is applied is o-f that common'and well known type in. which a plurality of parallel and approximately vertical slot-s, or louvers, 15, opening through the side of the hood, are uniformly spaced apart by intern'iediate strips orportions 16 of the hood, and in which the rearward marginal portions 17 of these strips are uniformly deflected outward from the residue thereof on the central lines of flexure 18.

To attach the tag, bring it into parallelism and contact with the outside of the louver work of the hood with the arm 11 in advance of the arm 12 and with the finger 13 pointing forward or upward, or both forwardly and upwardly, with reference to the hood; then slide the tag forward or forward and upward on the outside of the louver work, and thereby insert the finger 13 through one of the louvers into the interior of the hood. By this movement the finger 13, as it enters the hood, slides on the inside of the outwardly deflected marginal portion 17 of the contiguous strip 16, and is thereby bent inward, sidewise from its original plane. tag upward until it is stopped by contact of this finger with the upper terminal edge of this louver; then, with this contact as a bearing, turn the tag rotarily in substam tially its own vertical plane, and in the direction of the arrows, successively through the vertical and oblique positions shown in Fig. 5, and through the oblique position shown in Fig. 6, to the horizontal position. shown in Fig. 6. During this rotary movement of the tag, its arm 12 is guided by the finger 13 to that position within the hood which is shown in full lines in Fig. 6, while the arms 10 and 11 remain outside. ,The movement stops when the rearward edge 17 of the last-mentioned strip 16. having entered the slit 7, has reached the back end Then or at the same time slip the 9 of the slit. In this place at the top of the louver work, and in a horizontal position, the tag resiliently grasps the strip 16 between the internal arm 12 and the external arm 11, and also grasps between the same arm 12 and the external arm 10 a plane portion of the hood above the projecting portion 17 of the same strip. From this place and without further rotation the tag may be slid forcibly downward by hand to such an elevation on the side of the hood as is represented in Figures 1, 3 and 4. The tag may be detached from the hood at any time by merely reversing the rotary movement which is above described.

I claim as my invention 1. A tag of the specified class, flexible,

resilient and approximately plane, having its forward end portion divided by slits into three forwardly extending arms, whereof one extends between the other two and has a terminal finger extending backward.

2. A tag of the specified class, com n'ising a. substantially oblong sheet of flexible resilient material, and having two slits, both of them extending backward from its front end and one of them extending both backward and then forward so as to form a backwardly directed guiding finger within the tag.

Witness my signature at Omaha, Nebraska, April 3d, 1925.

HOWARD E. HAGAN. 

